Anti-Americanism, Alternet, and Seymour Hersh

I get Alternet's daily feed because sometimes they have a story---or links to stories---that interest me that no one else has, like this and this.

But the site has a consistent left-wing, anti-American bias. Noam Chomsky is a favored story subject, and Seymour Hersh is treated with more respect than he deserves, especially for his remarkably poorly conceived "scoop" on the killing of Osama Bin Laden. But then the Alternet left essentially sees the United States as the Bad Guy in the world.

The latest respectful Alternet interview with Hersh is a good counterpoint to CNN's recent story on the killing of Bin Laden ("We Got Him": President Obama, Bin Laden and the Future of the War on Terror).

Hersh has nothing new to back up his anonymously sourced story claiming that the US version of how Bin Laden was killed is an elaborate lie covering up what really happened. Hersh's sources seem obviously in the Pakistan government, an attempt to counter the US narrative that's not exactly flattering to Pakistan.

The only lie I can find in the US version of the story is the claim in the video above that the mission wasn't about killing Bin Laden, that the special forces were also tasked with capturing him if they could. Even according to the official US story, Bin Laden was shot immediately, though he made no threatening gestures and was unarmed.

It was clearly an assassination mission, which is okay with me. But why the unnecessary lie when the US is regularly killing jihadists around with world with drone strikes?

I count at least 14 people in the photo above watching a real-time video of the Bin Laden operation, including the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of State, who was surely already planning to run for president in 2016. Why would all these people be parties to Hersh's elaborate conspiracy?

1699 Market Street: Eyesore of the Week

1699 Market Street

Demolishing a low-rise building occupied by a viable business to make a nine-story apartment building is a consequence of the destructive Market and Octavia Plan I've been writing about for years. In a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco, the property underneath many buildings is now worth more than the present structures. Hence, demolishing low-rise buildings and constructing pricey new housing units makes economic sense to property owners.

Nine stories is relatively modest compared to the highrise boom coming to the Market/Octavia area.